


Welcome

by lilsnuggle, StarGirl11, visionaryScribe



Series: Connected Curses [1]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Connected Curses au, Cursed Luz Noceda, Gen, Partial Transformation, Tags Are Hard, Werewolf AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27441988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilsnuggle/pseuds/lilsnuggle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarGirl11/pseuds/StarGirl11, https://archiveofourown.org/users/visionaryScribe/pseuds/visionaryScribe
Summary: Luz didn't expect to step through a magic door that morning.She didn't expect to get recruited for a heist by a witch wanted by magical law.More than that, she didn't expect to want to stay.
Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Series: Connected Curses [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989874
Comments: 2
Kudos: 118





	Welcome

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the bigger au me and some friends are working on.
> 
> Luz's arrival to the Boiling Isles, of course, goes about as well as one might guess when she's wearing a fluffy fur coat a few sizes too big for her and somehow isn't dying from the heat.

“I meant what I said about learning to tell fantasy from reality, mija, but not in the way I know you’re thinking, I promise. I don’t want you to think this is all because of the snakes, though I will be having words with your tio Miguel about encouraging it. I know you’re good with your wolf, but there is a time and place for us to be ourselves and school is not one of those places, mija. I've got to go to work now. Hey. Look at me, please. I want this camp to help you, Luz. I want you to have friends and be happy. Te quiero. You be good. Text me when you get there.”

“Te quiero, Mami. I will.”

It wasn't fair. Yes, she'd made a mistake with the snakes but why would she need to go to some lame Reality Check camp? She didn't need one of those! She just wanted to be herself!

But her mom told her to go because she thought it would be another chance at making friends despite the name of said camp being so obviously ominous it could’ve fit right into a 1950’s horror movie poster. Her mom had told her she needed to tone down who she was so people wouldn't be scared. Told her a lot of things between Friday and today, Sunday, because her mom thought she had failed somewhere as a parent.

Well. She had said that when she thought Luz couldn't hear.

But everything else? That was for the day she had gotten off work that Luz felt horrible about because her mom couldn't even enjoy it because Luz had gone and messed things up! Again!

Luz had set the Azura book she'd been holding next to the trash bin as she sat down on the sidewalk and waited for the bus. She had her Very Important Pelt coat wrapped around her waist like a skirt today and hadn’t regretted the decision because even with it regulating her temperature some it was still incredibly hot and humid.

“Maybe I can still–” Whatever thought Luz had been thinking out loud was cut short when standing, reaching for her book only to find an owl perched on the rim of the trash can.

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment before the owl gave a short hoot, grabbed her book somehow by its talons, dropping it into a large burlap sack and taking off. It was only after the owl was hopping and gliding away with the sack that should be too large and heavy for it that Luz’s brain kicked into gear and she reacted in a way she thought appropriate.

Chase after the bird who stole her book, “Tiny trash thief!”

Kid, of course, followed after the bird blindly with little care for how it smelled funny to her or where she was going until she tripped. It took her a moment to get up and reassess. A moment to unravel her pelt from her waist and pull in on properly, over her shoulders and her arms through the sleeves, clasps done on the front and hood down. For now.

“Where am I?”

It was a whisper, little more than breath as Luz took everything in. The oddities around her in what was not a run-down cabin home or the middle of the woods. Two seconds later her brain caught up with the sounds she was hearing outside. People. A woman's voice that is a lot closer than anyone else's.

An owl hooting.

Her book!

“Excuse me, ma'am! Sorry. That's mine, thank you!”

Luz saved her Azura book from death by fire only to be faced with a problem. The magic door Luz came through closed and folded up before her eyes and halted her in her tracks before the latina could run right out the way she’d arrived in this weird marketplace.

“You're not going anywhere.”

Oh really? Yeah no. She didn't think so. If this magic lady won't let her go home through her magic door then Luz would just find a way to get it. Or find another way home if that didn't work.

“Actually, I am. Adios!”

Once out of the tent the view and the weight that she was not anywhere on Earth hit her like a semi. Dragons and giant hands. Creatures and beings she'd never heard of walking or flying or slithering or rolling around. Some looked human, except for their ears. Like the lady whose tent was still right behind her.

Time to get moving, maybe find her later to grab whatever she'd used to open the magic door. Two steps and a turn toward the right side of the tent and Luz immediately starts running into obstacles.

“Give me your skin!”

Nope! That pixie or faerie or whatever they were based on had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth aiming right for her pelt covered arm and so the latina‘s first instinct was to slap the small bird-sized being out of the sky. Like she did with particularly annoying insects.

Another ten steps backtracking around the other side toward the front of the stand again led her to a being that took one look at her with all ten eyes on their face and opened up exactly too many mouths and nope! Nope!

“Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, it's going to be like the stories isn't it? I walked through some faerie door and next thing I know it'll be years if I'm not someone's dinner by then and I'll—” The pointed eared lady with her way home was standing right behind her, wasn't she, “Please don't eat me!”

“I'm not going to eat you.” The witch woman looked downright offended even though Luz didn't think she was wrong at this point in thinking that, “Why would I eat a potential customer?”

“A faerie just tried to bite me like I was on the dinner menu and some other being took one look at me and thought I'd be tasty too so excuse me if I've been given the impression that eating other people or sentient creatures here is normal.”

“Well I don't know about you but I only eat people if they pissed me off enough. So. What you like, kid? A human foot filled with holes? Green bar of human candy? Oh! How about a shadow box that reflects only sadness?”

“I–” Just roll with it, Luz. Just. Go with it for now.

Play nice. Get the key. And then...what? Go back? _Yes, go back_ ! Back to where she doesn't fit in? _Back to her mom and family_ ! Where her mom sent her away to learn to hide herself even more than she already has to? _Ungrateful_ ! _Selfish_! Even when all she's seen are things wanting to eat her and a witch who now looks disappointed in not making a sale, and Luz is seriously considering staying here for longer than necessary?!

Even when this was proof of magic beyond her family's curse?

“That's not all it can do.” Just because she felt weird and conflicted now doesn't mean she has to be mean to the witch who could send her home easily or trap her here forever. Being nice might actually get her home faster. Even if being nice meant tiptoeing around what most likely caused her family to have the curse they did in the first place.

Just. Don't owe anyone here any favors and Luz should be good to go.

The old thing, once batteries were put in, showed some sort of exercise video. The noise predictably was drawing a crowd that Luz did not want to get caught up in so over to the magic witch lady’s side of the stand it was.

“I'll pay forty snails for the screaming box!” Even though the box wasn’t screaming.

“I'll pay a hundred!” What even were snails, anyway? What these people were holding just looked like green dollar bills except with spiral patterns and some weird horned dude’s face on either side.

“Can I eat the tiny person inside?” Sorry. What?

Wow. They really liked this old junk.

No, no nevermind that. Luz is on a mission. She cannot allow herself to get distracted like she always does. Cannot question getting back home because of how much trouble she could get into if she doesn't.

“What did you say your name was?”

“Luz! Ma’am. Luz Noceda.”

“Well, Luz. That was pretty clever, for a human.” That depends on what your definition is of a human, Luz wanted to shoot back. She didn't but only barely, hands and racing thoughts occupied by grabbing the sleeves of her coat and rubbing them between her fingers.

“And you're not human.”

“Of course I'm not! I'm not like you, child. I'm Eda the Owl Lady, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles! Respected! Feared!”

“Busted.”

* * *

Luz messed up.

At least she thinks she did.

No, she most definitely did. Why else would she be at the house of a witch criminal, far, far away from the town they were just in the middle of, agreeing to do the one thing Luz shouldn't do?

It wasn't just owing a favor to the Owl Lady. This was agreeing to something in exchange for a way home.

Something that the older witch could easily hold over her head, if what she asked turned out to be long term or otherwise impossible.

This wasn't even a curse related fear this was just common sense that, apparently, flew south for the winter and never came back!

“Welcome… To the Owl House.”

It really was beautiful. Candles and a fireplace. A mural of a one-eyed owl on the ceiling above their heads. A very comfy looking red couch. A broom and duster animated, surrounded by a golden aura as they began to clean up what mess wasn’t being suspended, tugged, and pushed into a kind of chaos that mimicked order.

“It's so beautiful. Do you live here alone?”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Footsteps from some unseen person landed heavily on a wooden floor. Footsteps that Luz would later realize weren’t as heavy as the house, or Hooty the House Owl, was making them appear to be. Who or what could that be?

“Well, I do have a roommate.”

“Who dares disturb I, the king of demons?”

What stood in the hallway, in a bath towel holding a rubber duck, was the cutest creature Luz had seen here so far. Of course, he looked mostly like a wolf. The tail and skull which may or may not be a part of his actual head were dead giveaways. The large bone claws jutting out from his paws like talons, or fingers, and the horns on his head didn’t make him any less cute in Luz’s eyes. She had horns of her own in her other form, after all, and while her claws weren’t as large as those of this bone wolf, her front paws did still hold a human hand-like quality to them in that she still, sort of, had opposable thumbs. The lack of visible ears was the only slightly off-putting thing about him, and yet the skull somehow made it seem like that was just how he’s meant to look.

He was indeed the cutest thing Luz had seen so far in this not-PG rated fantasy land, and probably the cutest thing she would ever see here if she was being honest with herself.

“Ay, qué lindo! Eda. Es tan lindo! What’s your name, little king?”

“Ah! Put me down! Eda who is this crazy person? She smells like a wet cerberus that’s been out in the sun.”

Luz was quick to place him back on the ground, “Sorry!”

“That’s Luz. She’s a human. Be nice to her, King. She agreed to help us with our situation.”

“Oh. Hurray!” King cheered.

Oh. Right. Hurray. Thanks for the reminder of her own situation, Ms. Owl Lady. Really appreciate it.

“So.” Apprehension stirred in her gut, heavy and sour and gross, “What do I need to do?”

* * *

Luz didn't know exactly when she had changed her mind. Maybe it had been when Eda had urged her onto the flying owl staff and told her to book it while she fought off the warden of the prison alone. Maybe it was when she realized that her natural inclination towards helping people had backfired on her yet again. Maybe it was when Luz made the snap decision to turn back around, free all the prisoners, and help everyone escape by launching herself off the still airborne magic stick onto the warden’s back. Who was, apparently, eyeless and was capable of breathing fire. Her nails sharpened and twisted into claw-like shapes as they dug into his shoulders as halfway transformed teeth, fangs, tusks and all, sunk into the back of his neck.

She’d held on for all she was worth until Warden Wrath used gravity, his weight, and his own strength against her to weaken her grip and peel her bloodied, snarling, half-feral human form off of him.

She totally hadn’t thought she’d die in that fight. Nope. Didn't fear for her existence at all.

Maybe it was being banged up, bruised and sore, and staring at her way home a couple of hours later feeling more alive than she had in a long time. Even more than when her family got together. And those were times where she could fully transform and not have a care in the world.

“I know you got your head cut off because of me, and we started a prison riot, which was actually pretty fun not gonna lie, but being here, doing all of that…” Luz tugs her coat tighter around her in an attempt to comfort herself and reassure herself with what she wanted to ask, “If you let me stay could you teach me magic? I’ll do chores or whatever I have to, but-”

“Kid, I’m sorry to disappoint you but I can’t teach you.” Eda didn’t look very sorry. She looked tired, mostly, and Luz knew she was feeling it now too. Adrenaline gone, fight or die situation over, and yeah. Luz felt good. Accomplished. And in pain. She was definitely going to be feeling this in the morning.

“You’re the most powerful witch around! Why can’t you teach me? If it’s because you don’t want to then just say it.”

“It’s,” Eda pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment as if to try and stave off a growing headache, “Luz? I can’t teach you magic because it’s impossible for humans to cast spells. I can let you stay the night, make sure you don’t get some unholy infection from those injuries, but–”

“There has to be a way that I can! And– and even if I can’t cast spells, I could still do other magic stuff, right?”

“Why did you change your mind? Earlier today I got the distinct impression that you wanted nothing more than to go home.”

What follows this insistence, that came completely out of left field even for her, and the question that it brought up, was what Luz believed to be the longest stretch of awkward silence she ever had to endure. She didn’t want to answer because she didn’t entirely know what it was that was adamant she stayed here. What part of her was saying to not go back to her mom. Eda was staring at her with the most deadpan ‘go on, I can wait’ expression that Luz had ever seen from a person sipping at a drink that smelled strongly of apples.

She tugged at the sleeves of her pelt, frowning at how long it was going to take to get the smell of blood off to where neither she nor her mom would be able to pick up on it. At least two separate showers. At least.

“Surely it couldn’t have been when you’d almost gotten crushed by the warden. After you nearly tore his head off because let's not forget that you, human, almost decapitated a well known, well-feared demon today.”

Yeah, and it’s also going to be a nightmare and a half trying to explain all of this to her mom. Maybe she'll skip over most of it. Or all of it. It's not like her mom could smell her lying through a phone screen.

“Eda. Eda. Let her stay. She can make us snacks.” Luz doesn’t know whether it’s that vote from King or something else the witch was thinking about, but Eda muttered something under her breath and pressed the key after that. The latina watched as the portal door closed up until the large eye design vanished from sight before Eda’s voice startled her back to her new reality.

“Fine. You can stay.”

“You won’t regret this, Ms. Owl Lady!” Eda stared at her dead in the eyes. Challenging her. Challenging what she’d said. Luz wasn’t going to be the one to look away first. She wasn't going to give Eda a reason to doubt her.

“I’m sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys :D  
> There's a few of us working on this au. Some of us write, some of us draw, some do both!
> 
> We've got a handy Discord https://discord.gg/xkcpAHWNKe here
> 
> And a tumblr @ wolfbeastau.tumblr.com here
> 
> Make sure to subscribe to the series so you don't miss an update ;]


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